the five countries are the philippines, malaysia, indonesia, thailand, and vietnam. the bank official said third-quarter expansion in the philippines was high at 7.1%. they said rising consumption and public investment in malaysia is contributing to the region's growth. the story was different for japan. they lowered their 2012 growth estimate by 0.6 percentage points. they cited a drop in exports stemming from a territorial dispute with china. the bank officials say southeast asian economies are supported by solid domestic demand. they added the countries are relatively unaffected by the debt woes in europe. >>> as if to back up the adb's projection, japan's economy remained out of steam in october. the latest key economic indicator fell for the seventh straight month. the cabinet office says the coincidence index of the economy ticked down 0.9 points from september to 90.6. the index tracks the current state of the economy and reflects activities like industrial output and employment. government officials trace the decline to the global economic slowdown. they said